Baseball: Christian Liberty upsets Westminster Christian in 1A regional
To appreciate the Class 1A high school baseball playoffs in is to appreciate the beautiful unpredictability of America's pastime at the grass-roots level.
Unlike at Class 4A powerhouses across Illinois where perhaps 20 players compete for a final roster spot, coaches of Class 1A programs like 135-student Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights and Elgin's 188-student Westminster Christian sometimes have to recruit their own hallways to find enough players to fill out the lineup card come spring.
Babe Ruth doesn't play the outfield in Class 1A games. Kids who look like babes in the woods often do, which can result in emotionally exhausting, topsy-turvy battles like Christian Liberty's 11-10 upset of host Westminster Christian in Thursday's regional semifinal.
Somehow, despite committing 5 errors against a team that slaughtered them twice 10 days earlier by a combined score of 24-2, Christian Liberty (10-14) found a way to survive and advance to Saturday's regional championship game against Harvest Christian Academy at 11 a.m.
Chargers starting pitcher Aiden Miller (5-1) gutted his way through 20 outs before giving way after 107 pitches to reliever Mark Cabrera, who recorded his first save by striking out Westminster's No. 3 hitter with the potential tying run at first base.
"I said before the game we're going to have to play a great, stellar game in all facets to win and that just wasn't the case," Christian Liberty coach Jed Bennett said. "But that's how it works in the regionals because everyone's nervous. We made some errors, they made some errors. We gave them some runs, they gave us some runs. When it came down to it in the last inning, between Aiden and Mark, we got it done."
Cabrera got it done at the plate, too. The Chargers' No. 2 hitter went 3-for-5 with 4 RBI, including 2 doubles and a 2-run home run off the scoreboard in left-center field. His second-inning homer staked the Chargers to a 5-1 lead and they extended that cushion to 7-2 in the fourth inning, aided by 1 of the Warriors' 4 errors.
Westminster Christian (16-18), which started only three seniors, used a 6-run fourth inning to grab an 8-7 lead. Ian Merlak's 2-run single and a 2-run double by starting pitcher Tyler Schoemann fueled the rally. Matthew Schulenburg's single knotted the score at 7-7 and the Warriors grabbed an 8-7 lead when the Chargers allowed an infield popup to drop untouched.
"Last year this team would have folded up the tent at 7-2," Westminster coach Steve Gallaher said. "For us to come back and put up a 6-spot and go up 8-7 at the time and battle back says a lot."
Undeterred, the Chargers regained the lead in the top of the fifth with 2 more unearned runs. Only 1 of CLA's 9 runs was earned.
The Chargers extended their lead to 11-8 in the seventh as Cabrera and Miller drove in runs, but Westminster responded with 2 runs in the bottom of the seventh, courtesy of Schoemann's two-out single off Cabrera.
Cabrera bounced back by getting No. 3 hitter Justin Rasmussen to swing at an outside fastball for a game-ending strikeout.
"I missed a little bit but he chased," Cabrera said.
The Chargers, who were bumped to Class 2A last season after winning Class 1A regionals in 2013 and 2014, will play for their third regional title in three seasons on Saturday.
"We had a couple of hiccups but we made it happen," Miller said. "Thank goodness."